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ENSI Erfahrungs- und Forschungsbericht 2011
complex and automated environments. Hammlab
is complemented by the Virtual Reality Laboratory,
a facility for rapid, interactive, high quality design
of control rooms. Tools to assist in verification and
validation of such designs as well as tools for main-
tenance training have been developed.
Highlights of the work in the MTO area performed
in 2011 are given below.
Human Performance
Past accidents and incidents have underscored the
influence of human performance on the safety
of nuclear power plants. In upgrades of existing
plants or in advanced reactors, the quality and re-
liability of human performance in operation is ex-
pected to remain significant for the safe opera-
tion of NPPs. Licensing of new designs will require
improved efforts in analysing the new work envi-
ronments and work organisation and their influ-
ence on safety. Human performance is therefore
a key area of research. The programme empha-
sises empirical research, with special focus on ex-
periments in HAMMLAB. There is a strong focus
on direct co-operation with active groups in the
member organisations within this field of research.
Main results:
❚ HRA has been one of the focus areas. An in-
ternational collaborative study is being per-
formed where the outcomes from applying HRA
methods are compared to empirical data from
HAMM LAB. The study utilizes data collected
in HAMMLAB including 14 crews running four
main scenarios: Two variants of SGTR (Steam
Generator Tube Rupture), and two variants of
LOFW (Loss of Feedwater). Participants from sev-
eral member organisations in ten countries, in-
cluding industry, regulators and research organ-
isations, formed thirteen HRA teams analysing
the scenarios. The U.S. NRC has put substantial
resources into the assessment group. The same
is true for PSI from Switzerland, supported by
the Swiss regulatory body ENSI.
❚ The first phase of the study, concluded in 2008
and the results are reported in HWR-844. This
report is also issued by the U.S. NRC as NUREG/
IA-0216. Phase two of the work (2008 – 2009)
consisted of analysis of the HAMMLAB data for
the rest of the HFEs (Human Failure Events) in
the SGTR scenarios, reviewing the HRA analy-
ses for these scenarios, and comparing the out-
comes, ref. HWR-915. Phase three has been fi-
nalized in this reporting period and comprises
analysis and comparisons based on the LOFW
scenarios, ref. HWR-951. The LOFW part of the
study found similar results as the SGTR part for
many issues and many methods, such as the
importance of a good qualitative analysis and
the importance of including a cognitive part in
the analysis of crews’ operation with emergen-
cy operating procedures. These results strength-
ened the findings from the first part of the
study. The HFEs in the LOFW scenarios were de-
fined differently from the HFEs in the SGTR sce-
narios. This gave insights into the modelling of
dependency in dealing with sequential human
actions. The empirical data showed that, for the
HFEs defined in these scenarios, modelling com-
plete dependency between the HFEs was not
appropriate. In practical terms this means that
if the crews failed the first HFE, one could not
assume that they would more probably fail the
subsequent HFE.
❚ A follow-up study has been performed at a
U.S. nuclear power plant. The aim was partly
the same as in the HAMMLAB study, to identify
strengths and weaknesses of HRA methods. The
study was run by the U.S. NRC, with the Halden
Project as a supporting organisation. The advan-
tage for the Halden Project was to obtain prac-
tice in how to perform an applied study at a nu-
clear power plant training simulator. The U.S.
study confirmed some of the findings from the
HAMMLAB study. Crew variability in the opera-
tion of the difficult scenarios was observed in the
training simulator, as in HAMMLAB. The nature
of these scenarios was slightly different from a
standard training scenario, giving the instruc-
tors and the crews new insights into plant oper-
ation of challenging scenarios. The main bene-
fits for the plant of this study were especially to
obtain insights into concrete scenario and pro-
cedure issues.
Operational Culture
Culture may vary across nations and organisations
that operate nuclear plants. This could limit the
generalizability of human-machine research con-
ducted in HAMMLAB and other simulator facili-
ties. We have therefore investigated cross-cultur-
al generalizability to find out whether nuclear na-
tions and organisations share a common culture,
or have unique cultures.
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